


Undyne's "Apology"

by glaciesdraco



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: FINAGLC, Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach Fan Drabble, Gen, I Am Unoriginal Trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2018-10-10 02:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10426980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glaciesdraco/pseuds/glaciesdraco
Summary: Undyne wished she was fighting Flowey over this any day.Come to think of it, they all would.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unrestedjade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrestedjade/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Flowey Is Not a Good Life Coach](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056333) by [unrestedjade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrestedjade/pseuds/unrestedjade). 



> This is assuming Jade meant that Sans and Undyne had a separate "talk" when Sans mentions it in the last chapter. *shrug* I dunno, I'm just here to post my garbage writing mmkay.

Undyne woke up with her head and arms resting against a table and a gentle weight draped over her shoulders. She didn't remember falling asleep at their table. She sat up wearily, releasing an anxious breath as she spotted Alphys at the other end, resting her head against her collarbone and looking rather exhausted. Undyne checked the clock. Only a few hours had passed since they'd brought the brothers home and both were still resting. She glanced to the couch where Gerson had been when she finally passed out.

Only to see Sans sitting there, clutching Papyrus' hand for dear life, and definitely still exhausted. Gerson was no where to be seen. Fuck.

Trying her best to be discreet, Undyne studied him with an uneasy eye, slowly prepping herself to speak to him. Gosh, he'd hardly slept at all if he'd woken up before her. She'd have thought he'd at least make it through the night before being ready to get up and go at it again being so frail and all, but. There he was. She supposed he really did love Papyrus more than anything. His facial expression was pure agony. God, she had really screwed up.

"Mornin' Fishface," Sans' voice was a croaky murmur, but it still caught her off guard. She'd meant to speak first.

Undyne made a silent sigh, and turned her head brazenly towards him in her internal defeat. He wasn't looking at her, "Hey..." she ground out stiffly, "How, um... how are you feeling?"

"Pretty alive at the moment," he replied, "And you? I heard you carried us back here, so. Thanks."

It felt awkward. She owed him an apology but the words were stuck in her throat. She felt like she couldn't breathe for a second. And now he was thanking her before she had the chance to say anything else.

"You're welcome..." Undyne said, but bit her tongue, "No, I mean. No problem. Look, I... I'm not..."

Sans finally spared her a dimly lit glare from the side of his eye sockets. For a skeleton with limited expression, he sure was good at scrutinizing.

"Look, I... I was just trying to help him, and I. I messed up. I just didn't... _we_ didn't know who else it could be."

It was ME though, she wanted to say. It was ME who went jumping to conclusions, it was ME who failed your brother and caused him to run away, it was ME who locked you in the shed and she wouldn't blame him for resenting her for it. There was just no helping what had happened. She'd really messed up, jumping the gun, rushing over to their house without any solid proof besides what they had told her, without the full story behind it all (and she still to this moment had her doubts about what had happened). And she'd just believe it was him without question.

I'm SO sorry, she wanted to say but she knew there would be no purpose behind them. She grew more frustrated the more she thought about it and it visibly frustrated her. She hoped Sans didn't take it the wrong way but knowing her luck he probably would.

Sans looked away, hiding his face. He probably had some smart remark to say so Undyne prepared herself to keep composure.

"'Sall good," he said mildly instead, "Forget about it. It's in the past now. It's over."

Damn it, Undyne sword internally. He had his priorities in order. Brother first, betrayal later. He just had to make this difficult for her, didn't he?

"It's not in the past, but... I respect you for trying to act like you're cool with it."

Sans was kneeling at Papyrus' side and only seemed to protrude his shadow further as they talked. She could tell this was getting on his nerves. He didn't reply.

 

Then there was silence. Apparently Sans had nothing more he wanted to say on the matter. It probably wasn't the best time for apologies, given the situation. Papyrus was still technically in danger, but Undyne had faith. She knew Sans probably did too, but something about him just seemed more... broken than usual. He was probably sitting there stewing on his worries while she was bothering him about some stressful interpersonal crap that he wasn't in the mood to talk about. He was obviously still upset, I mean who wouldn't be. But he was taking it like a god damn man and not being shitty about it. God, she had misjudged him SO badly.

"So that thing..." Undyne said finally, when the quiet was too much to bear. The thought of going back to sleep after watching Sans sitting vigil like that left a nasty feeling in her stomach.

"I don't know what it was," Sans told her, voice creeping with a dark edge, "All I care about is that it's dead and he's safe."

"Yeah, figures," Undyne shrugged, though she had to force down her doubt that what he said was true, "I mean, he was probably too scared to tell anyone what that thing was."

"Yeah, obviously." Sans said with a muffled quality to his voice.

"I just hate that it took so long for any of us to notice. I mean, you're his brother, you're with him every day, and even _you_ didn't notice."

"Thanks Undyne, hadn't keyed in that detail."

"Nng, no! No, I mean... I didn't mean it like that..."

"I know what you meant." Sans didn't say it with any offense. He sounded ashamed. Undyne felt even more ashamed.

"Sans, you... you can't blame yourself."

"Why not?"

Undyne bit back the immediate remark as she realized what he meant. "Why not? You did. Everyone else did."

"You were a good brother. You saw he was in danger, and you went after him. Hell you escaped the shed and Grillby's before you made it to him. You covered a lot of ground for him." Another gap of silence. "Sans, for what it's worth... I never would have thought any of that about you. I mean, yeah you're a drunk and I've always thought you were kind of a slob, but... but Papyrus has always talked about you in the most caring and loving way, and I... I just wanted to know what was wrong with him."

She saw Sans eye lights flicker upward.

"I'll shut up now, if that's what you want." Undyne sighed. Please to God, let someone shut her up.

"Thanks Undyne," Sans said, a little dismissively, "But I really don't need to hear your little spiel. It doesn't really matter anymore."

 _Oh._ "Well, if that's how you feel about it."

She'd screwed up bad and now there was nothing she could do. Sans was already so emotionally gone anyway, she'd probably just do more harm than good if she continued bothering him about it. In the moment she'd realized she was wrong, Undyne had really only needed to focus on killing that flower monster... thing. She didn't have to worry about anything else, just protecting her friends. Now that the calm had returned, so did the guilt of what she'd almost done. Imprison an innocent monster because of her impatience and bad judgment. What kind of Captain was she?

All Sans really wanted was for her to shut up so he could look after his brother. Hell, he had earned whatever he asked of her at this point, and if it was just silence, well. She was happy to oblige.

Biting her lip, she pushed herself out of her chair and walked over to stand beside him kneeling there. She put a hand on his shoulder and moved him to stand. He jumped at first, and even resisted when she started pulling his arm, but he let her lead him into the chair Gerson had been sitting in. He was tense the whole time, and part of him was still trembling from the fight. It wasn't her best idea, but he was on a bad foot and she figured she should be helpful. She immediately took her hand away from him after helping him. He was weary of her now.

She stood beside him and watched Papyrus' sleeping figure. Paps looked so peaceful. Lifeless, but peaceful.

"I'm gonna check the crowd outside," Undyne said finally, after a few more agonizing minutes of silence. Sans was too good at silences.

Sans nodded in reply, but she only caught it because she stared at him all the way to the door. She actually almost ran into the table as she turned the corner, but Sans didn't comment.

As she made it outside, she eagerly jumped at the opportunity to help by mediating the crowd. Talking, reasoning, generally keeping busy was a good way to feel useful. Anything to get out of her own head, and to get that grieving image of Papyrus' brother out of her brain.


	2. Alphys' Apology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like the last chapter but more... soap-opera-y

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? I thought we were done with this! But, apparently. Nope! It just hit me all of a sudden in burst of inspiration, and girl's gotta go where the inspo takes her. I think it came off a little more dramatic than I would have liked? But anyway, here goes!

Alphys awoke to a loud slamming sound that came just a few feet in front of her, and yelped. She slowly composed herself enough to look in that general direction and realized there was nothing there. Just a chair that had been shoved way too hard against the table.

 

"Sorry Al." said a gruff voice to her left. It appeared that Sans was awake now and had moved the chair he had been sitting in back to the table in favor of kneeling by the edge of the couch, directly at Papyrus' side.

 

Despite being aware that he was in the exact area he'd been in when he was asleep, he still scared her out of her wits when he spoke. She was fairly jumpy after everything that happened, considering. After all, after finding out that a plant monster was the one bullying Papyrus...

 

Freshly cut guilt for a multitude of reasons hit her like a bag of ice to the gut. Through the lack of oxygen in her lungs, she managed to breathe out,

 

"Oh. Y-You're awake."

 

"Yeah, I'm awake. Didn't mean to wake you up though."

 

She hadn't stopped shaking since she'd arrived in Snowdin, but now she was shaking for another reason. After everything, everything she'd done, between the experiments on DT, the amalgamates rotting in her lab, and now Papyrus, the weight of Alphys' sins stacked high on her shoulders. Her heart genuinely ached as she looked at the skeleton brothers. All the grief she had caused them, and they didn't even know the half of it.

 

Alphys took another breath. "I d-don't mind. H-How's Papyrus?"

 

Sans didn't look at her, or answer. He glowered, kneeling at his brother's side. Duh, Alphys. She thought. He had fallen down. How do you _think_ Papyrus is doing?

 

"I-I'm sure he'll wake up soon," Alphys added lamely, "Uh... h-how long has he...?"

 

"I woke up like an hour ago so like... six hours?? Maybe? I don't know... I didn't really ask." He looked like he deeply regretted that fact.

 

"Oh. Uh... well, if you need any h-healing magic in the meantime, we can..."

 

"I'm good. Thanks Alphys."

 

She studied him, receding inward on himself as she made conversation with him. She often did this herself when she was around people she wasn't comfortable with. But she and Sans had known each other for a long while, and though they weren't exactly friends...

 

_"I d-don't know you all that w-well."_

 

Her own words slapped her in the face, and she realized that Sans might actually be a bit scared of her.

 

No. Not fear. Hurt. Betrayal. He had that subtle reserved quality that she'd only seen him direct to strangers in bars, but never to her. There had always been an odd... connection between the two of them. An unspoken Thing. Not a romance per se, or even a friendship, but they understood one another. Alphys didn't realize how much she cherished that. She bit her lip.

 

"I... I d-don't actually kn-know where to b-begin apologizing..." she murmured to the table in front of her, staring downward, "I just... I f-feel... I..."

 

"Al." Sans said quietly, "Please don't do this right now."

 

Alphys belatedly realized she was crying. She snorted a bitter laugh, despite herself, huffing up tears and feeling her face grow tight for a moment.

 

"Ugh, I'm sorry. Th-This is... s-so inappropriate and self-c-centered of me right now, but... oh, Sans I..."

 

"Alphys. Come on. It's over with now. It's fine."

 

It's not fine. It's awful. Her chest was tight with the weight and it was impossible to bury it any deeper.

 

"I'm sorry. I'm s-so... so sorry. I can't... I can't believe... I ever thought... God, I'm so stupid..."

 

"Shh... c'mon, Al. Please don't do this to me." Sans was beside her now, handing her a tissue that he'd conjured out of thin air somehow. He leaned his arms on the table, audibly shaking with fatigue. Alphys was too overwhelmed with emotion to think about it. She looked up at him and threw her arms around him, holding him up tight.

 

"I'm sorry. I'm so... so... so sorry."

 

"Alphys, please. It's not like you could've known Hell, if I were in your same shoes, I probably would have..."

 

But she could have known. That's probably what was tormenting her the most. She could have realized- she made that thing after all. She'd seen the reports, she'd even caught it on camera a few times, but never spared it more than a fearful thought; it merely mixed in with all of her other pressing anxieties. It knew all of her secrets so she'd been too absorbed in worrying about that to care about what it might be doing elsewhere, and to other monsters. She shivered. Hoping to add more to Sans' understanding, she said,

 

"You... you're my friend. You are. I just... in that moment, I didn't... oh, you must have felt so alone, I..."

 

Sans was quiet for about half a minute. Then he pushed her away, gently.

 

"This isn't about me. And I really appreciate you being concerned for my feelings and all Al really, but... I got other things to worry about. Let's just drop it."

 

"O-Okay..." it was such a marvel to see Sans handling this with grace, even after everything that had happened to him. Even after Papyrus allowed them to lock him in the shed and let him take the blame for what they thought was happening to him, letting him take the fall for... what was ultimately... Alphys' mistake. Papyrus sure was lucky.

 

Papyrus. Alphys spared the sleeping skeleton a glance as Sans walked back over to him. He had been through so much she couldn't even begin to puzzle events together. When had they first met? She wondered. How and why had he come into contact with it? She had so many questions and half of them she'd never know the answers to because of one sole fact: she knew why and what it was. That would probably haunt her until the end of time.

 

~

 

Sans stayed by Papyrus' side for the next several hours. Alphys watched him occasionally, mesmerized by his willpower. She'd never seens Sans go so long without sleeping or talking. He was stoic as the night, silent and unblinking, eye lights guttered out. Undyne finally came back in after an hour or so and asked him where certain things in the house were located, and he pointed her around with his free hand, not looking at her. He was adamant about the fact that he was not going to be speaking to her. Again, apparently as Alphys found out as she quietly accounted their conversation to Undyne in the kitchen.

 

"Ugh, see what you said was so much better. I couldn't even manage a sorry. And you didn't even do anything wrong!"

 

"Th-That's not true though...." Alphys murmured, "I kinda caused the whole thing."

 

"Let's get one thing straight Alphys; nobody caused this except for that freakin' dead monster, alright? And it sucks that what happened happened, we were only working with what information we knew! And... ugh, while I AM sorry... I can't see it unfolding any differently than they did."

 

"Undyne, we l-locked him in his own shed. Papyrus went off to get k-k-killed by that thing!"

 

"I know, okay? I'm not making any excuses. But Alphys," she kneeled down to meet Alphys' eyes, "We can't exactly decide how something reaches its outcome. And Papyrus is gonna be just fine, so... we just need to work on moving past this."

 

"R-Right... you're right..." Alphys agreed.

 

They both went quiet, letting Undyne's words pass through the air. They both walked out of the kitchen to stare at Sans, still kneeling at his brother's side.

 

"Damn it," Undyne growled, and walked over to stand beside him, "Hey bonehead, we..."

 

Sans jumped, hissing in pain as he twisted around on his bad foot to put his back to Papyrus.

 

"Whoa, take it easy! I... thought you heard me coming."

 

"You sure think a lot of things." Sans said breathlessly, readjusting himself on the floor. He sounded more frightened than angry, but Alphys could feel the passive aggression in his petty comment.

 

"You need to settle your nerves," Undyne offered, "You could sit down at the table while me or Alphys fixes you some tea?"

 

Sans exhaled sharply, gazing at Undyne with a faint blue glow in his left eye. Alphys had only seen it on a few rare occasions, and she still wasn't entirely sure what it did, but she was certain that Sans held some sort of secret power in it.

 

"I don't want anything. Thanks though." Sans turned back to Papyrus. Undyne was trying and failing miserably to have patience.

 

"Look, Papyrus won't miss you between here and the table. What's the big deal?"

 

"I don't want to."

 

"Why? Because I'm the one offering? I'm not gonna poison you, Sans."

 

"Well let's hope you're not a liar atop of a prideful schmuck then."

 

"What the hell's your problem?" Undyne hissed, "I'm trying to make amends here. Do I have to get down on my knees and beg you? No _wonder_ Papyrus is always bitching about you. You won't even let other people help you."

 

Sans stood up then, staring Undyne coldly in the face, "My fucking problem Fishface, is that I don't want to be seen sitting in front of the door when the whole fucking town walks in, because spoiler alert, I'm not exactly in any better mood with them right now than I am with the two of you."

 

He spat the words, even shooting Alphys a rather nasty glare for a moment, and Alphys flinched.

 

"Just leave me the fuck alone."

 

Undyne looked like she might say something back, clenching her fists several times, but ended up stalking over to Alphys in the kitchen doorway, kicking the trash can so hard that it left a dent.

 

"Goddammit I want to _punchhimsobad_!"

 

"He's e-exhausted, Undyne. Give him a break."

 

"That's what I was trying to do! But, ugh... he's just _soooo_ above it all. More like just a petty spoiled bitch, who just wants to hold a grudge!"

 

"Try to relax..."

 

"I..." she straightened herself, "I really want to help him... I... I'm starting to get really worried about Papyrus."

 

Alphys nodded, grabbing Undyne around the waist to hug her.

 

"He's just... standing over there in his little barrier of shame, and I just... can't crack it. A-Alphys... what are we gonna do if Papyrus doesn't wake up?"

 

Undyne's resolve hadn't shown signs of breaking until now, and Alphys found it eerie how much it spoke volumes to the level of hope in the room. Gerson had said that the amount of hope would be key in Papyrus' recovery, and Undyne was like a shooting star in a sea of sparkling stones. If she was going out, it would make a huge impact. And Sans couldn't do it on his own.

 

"He's going to w-wake up. I know so. You can't g-give up just yet."

 

"You're right. Ugh, what was I thinking? That dork... he better." Undyne wiped her eye. Alphys squeezed her tighter.

 

"He'll be f-fine."

 

"He will. It was a stupid thing to say."

 

 

Across the room, Sans shoulders slumped, and they heard it. His bones creaked softly, his shoulders hunched. Alphys gently pulled away from Undyne.

 

"L-Let me..." she walked over to Sans, clearing her throat an embarrassing number of times, and sat down beside him on the floor. At least he knew she was there.

 

"What do you want, Al." he sounded tired, maybe a little exasperated.

 

"Y-You... you haven't slept or ate anything in t-twenty four hours. It's not g-good for you."

 

"I'll eat later. Don't worry about it."

 

"You'll eat now!" Undyne called flatly, stomping into the kitchen to presumably look for food. Alphys sighed.

 

"Y-You know..." she said, inching a little closer to him, "You s-said before that everything's fine, but what I think you meant was a-actually..."

 

"It was actually 'leave me alone', yeah." Sans glanced at her from the side, "So I would really appreciate it if you'd hop off my metaphorical dick and stop acting like you give a shit."

 

Alphys didn't take the anger-charged bait, "I d-do give a shit, Sans. I care about fixing this."

 

"Well I don't."

 

"Yes you d-do. You care so much that even though you can't f-forgive us, you're letting us stay here with you to watch o-over him. Because d-deep down, you k-know we were only trying to h-help."

 

For the first time, Sans face spread into a wide grin, completely mirthless.

 

"Yeah," he said with an eerie edge, "And what good friends you were. To him. You're not _my_ fucking friends though. You said so yourself."

 

"B-But I...!"

 

"Now leave me the fuck alone before I say something you'll regret."

 

Alphys had never been so out of sorts in all her life. She felt hurt, and as though she'd been lied to; or rather that she'd tricked herself into believing that she could somehow preserve her friendship with Sans. The expression on her face must have told that too, because Sans' hard stupor seemed to falter for a second.

 

"Look, will you please... just back off of me for a few hours? You're both driving me nuts. I don't know what's going to happen to my brother after I let this whole fucking thing happen in the first place, and I'm just... so _tired_ of all these fucking apologies."

 

Alphys murmured something that she hoped was an affirmation in her daze before trotting back into the kitchen to sob into Undyne's shoulder.

 

"That little fucking asshole," Undyne muttered, "Like he's the only fucking person here that's tired."

 

"We should have known better than to pick at him like that..." Alphys said, wiping her eyes.

 

"We're just trying to help!"

 

"I know, but he d-doesn't want help from us... he was really hurt by all this."

 

"Oh it's not that," Undyne said scoffing, "He probably blames himself for this whole thing anyway, and he's just going through a lot of self-loathing and shame for everything so he's taking it all out on us, meanwhile he's tired, and Papyrus is..."

 

They looked sadly between the two of them.

 

"We should leave him alone."

 

Alphys nodded. Then Undyne, casting a glance at one of the many baskets of goodies sitting on the kitchen counter that the Shopkeeper had brought, grabbed a wrapped goodie from one and approached Sans, who was bowing his head low by the couch as if sobbing or praying. She shoved it in his face before stalking away.

 

"Eat a goddamn Cinnamon Bunny."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll... I got so carried away with this and I'm not even done. I miss publishing content so much, so... here's this next little bit.

**Author's Note:**

> So... I make a general rule not to write things that I don't know for sure if the creator will write or not, but? This just came to me and I HAD to get it down. Writing spells for me these days are so rare, lol.


End file.
